This invention relates to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), and, more specifically, to an energy-efficient system for optimizing indoor air quality.
The build-up of indoor air pollutants and the ability of the ventilation system to eliminate these indoor air pollutants affect the quality of air in the indoor environment. Although health and thermal comfort can usually be addressed by attempting to eliminate the various sources of indoor pollutants, it is almost impossible to totally eliminate them. It is thus inevitable that ventilation with fresh air should play an important role in the eventual quality of the air in the indoor environment. In the design of ventilation systems, it is not sufficient to ensure an adequate provision of total fresh air quantity at the fresh air in take of an air-handling unit (AHU) but it is equally important to consider the related ventilation characteristics. It is essential that the fresh air reaches the localized xe2x80x9cbreathing zonexe2x80x9d of the various occupied zones served by the particular AHU in the correct proportion and maintains the desirable local air exchange effectiveness characteristics at all times. As the occupancy profile in various localized zones of an indoor environment can change quite significantly during the course of operation of an AHU on a daily basis, it becomes necessary to incorporate the response of ventilation systems to such dynamically changing profiles to ensure adequate ventilation provision at all times without excessive energy consumption. This is particularly true in the context of tropical climates.
Conventional design so fair-conditioning and mechanical ventilation systems resort to mixing of the centralized fresh air intake and the return air before being treated by the cooling coil and subsequently distributed to the various occupied zones as xe2x80x9cmixed airxe2x80x9d. The disadvantage of such designs, particularly with variable-air-volume (VAV) systems, is fairly well established, resulting in complaints of in adequate ventilation leading to perceptions of staleness and stuffiness. Such complaints are inevitable due to the inability of these typical designs of VAV systems to maintain adequate fresh air distribution to the dynamically changing occupancy and xe2x80x9cotherxe2x80x9d space load profiles since any reduction of total supply air flow results in a reduction of fresh air quantity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,851 (Dozier et al.) discloses a variable-air-volume diffuser with an induction air assembly. As described in the Dozier patent, the air in a room is conditioned and ventilated with two separate duct systems, a first carrying conditioned air from a heater or air conditioner and a second carrying fresh air (xe2x80x9cventilation airxe2x80x9d). The conditioned air enters the room through a diffuser. The ventilation air is discharged through an air induction nozzle and blows past a temperature sensor that, in turn, controls the flow of conditioned air. The flow rate of conditioned air is regulated by virtue of a movable flow control element located in the diffuser.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,795 (Ginn et al.) discloses a dual duct variable volume air conditioning system. As described in the Ginn patent,the air in a room is conditioned using two independent ducts, a first supplying cold air and a second (xe2x80x9creset ductxe2x80x9d) supplying either hot or cold air. Flow through each duct is regulated by valves which are opened and closed by a self-contained system regulator in response to changes in room temperature. Each duct also has a pressure-responsive sensor-actuator for sensing flow velocity in the duct and adjusting the valve positions through a direct mechanical linkage.
However, certain drawbacks are evident from the prior art designs. The prior art HVAC systems have failed to provide a system for supplying both primary outside air (required for ventilation) and secondary return air (required for offsetting thermal loads) in such a way that indoor air quality at various locations inside a building and overall energy efficiency are optimized. Current state-of-the-art variable-air-volume HVAC systems, which are popular in the tropics, have significant cooling and dehumidifying requirements. These systems typically employ floor-by-floor Air Handling Units (AHUs). A single VAV fan is designed to distribute air throughout the various zones of a building. The prior art designs usually suffer from inadequate fresh air ventilation in the localized zones since the fresh air damper is also throttled when the volumetric flow rate is reduced in a VAV system at lower thermal loading conditions.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved HVAC system that overcomes the foregoing deficiencies.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an energy-efficient HVAC system having zonal ventilation control for controlling the indoor air quality (IAQ) at various locations of a building.
As embodied and broadly described here in, the present invention provides a ventilation and air conditioning system for providing zonal cooling and ventilation, said system comprising an air-handling unit for distributing air throughout a building or structure, said air-handling unit having a first intake for channeling fresh air to a heat-exchanging device capable of producing conditioned fresh air; a first fan for moving said conditioned fresh air through a fresh air duct; a second intake for channeling recycled air to a heat-exchanging device capable of producing conditioned recycled air; and a second fan for moving said conditioned recycled air through a recycled air duct; said system also comprising a mixing chamber connected to a distal end of said fresh air duct and also connected to a distal end of said recycled air duct, said mixing chamber being an enclosure for mixing the conditioned fresh air and the conditioned recycled air for subsequent ventilation into a nearby space.
The system described herein provides efficient air distribution, especially in high-rise air-conditioned buildings, while at the same time ensuring excellent ventilation. The significant advantage of the invention over current state-of-the-art systems is that the provision of fresh air at each of the localized zones is a function only of the occupant density (as sensed by its own localised CO2 sensor) and is not affected by any variation in thermal loads. This will then ensure that adequate ventilation and acceptable indoor air quality is maintained in all the individual zones at all times. Thus, the HVAC system of the present invention provides optimal amounts of fresh and conditioned air to different rooms or offices in the same building. By mixing the supplies of fresh and conditioned air on location, i.e., at the point of final distribution, different rooms in the same building can receive tailored air supply depending on the local thermal load and occupancy profile.
Preferably, the HVAC system comprises a single-coil twin-fan air-handling unit.
A single-coil twin-fan AHU enables the simultaneous conditioning of two separate air streams without mixing in the downstream section of the coil. The single-coil twin-fan design facilitates the treatment of fresh and return air streams separately (using separate fans which are independently and separately controlled) so as to achieve optimal dehumidifying performance on the fresh air stream (which is predominantly latent cooling) and optimal cooling performance on the return air stream (which is predominantly sensible cooling). Another key advantage of the overall system concept is the ability to achieve the desired cooling and dehumidifying performance in a rather independent manner using a single coil. A single coil can be installed in one air-handling unit with suitable modifications to the airways. Usually, a simple sheet-metal barrier will suffice to separate the fresh and the return air streams. By using a single coil with a single chilled water feed, the intermediate return and supply manifolds between the fresh air coil and return air coil are no longer required, resulting in fewer components and less cost. This would also mean that the AHU would occupy less space in the building.